Calculate How Much More You're Spending By Not Using LED Light Bulbs

Early last week, as I walked into my condo's elevator, I noticed something different; it was really bright in there now. After I pressed my floor's button I looked up and saw that all 8 of the PAR20 halogen light bulbs were replaced with new ones that clearly weren't going to let anyone hide behind any areas previously darker with the old lights.

Curious, I emailed the landlord and did some research on kinds of brighter light bulbs. After about waiting a week for my landlord to reply, "Yes, we replaced them last week with LED bulbs. And although some tenants may find them to be too bright for comfort, they're more efficient lighting and the condo management board ordered them.", he confirmed what I learned just after a few minutes Googling and a little bit of digging.

So, after learning more about the basic benefits of replacing older types of light bulbs with LED light bulbs, I thought I'd share a LED conversion formula I discovered to show just how much you could possibly save over time simply by replacing the lights in your house or commercial building. One thing to note is buying LED bulbs isn't exactly considered to be cheap. So with this calculator, my hopes is that you learn why people are doing it and hopefully it will help you find another way to save money on your energy bill every month especially in tough financial times like today.

Let's say you're replacing 10 x 60W incandescent bulbs with 15W LED bulbs. The difference in watts is 45W. I'm going to do this one bit at a time to give you more resolution into what's happening.

45W x 10 Bulbs = 450W (difference in the amount of energy to power 10 bulbs)

450W x 12 hours x 365 Days / 1,000 kW = 1,971 kiloWatts (total amount of saved energy in a one-year period if the bulbs are used for an average of 12 hours per day)

1,971 kW x $ 0.12 = $236.52

So, just how much money are you spending in unnecessarily just by not using LED bulbs? $236.52 PER YEAR. I consider that to be lot of money, especially knowing that i I could be saving it. Over a 2 year period you'd save enough money to pay for a second iPad :)

I ordered my first "set" of LED bulbs from a local company in town on Monday.

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Hey guys, I just thought I'd update this article and let you know I found that recently, LED light bulbs in Canada have seen a price drop. What use to cost $30, now costs only $20 for example. Search for "elite".

@Bob CFL's are good replacement lamps. Although when it comes to the good bang for your buck department, LED's have come a long way. After talking to my landlord and the place I bought my bulbs, I discovered that the majority of the commercial buildings downtown and pretty much the top hotels, retail stores and big box retail stores use LED lights because even the short term savings in one year is better.

CFL's offer the same energy savings without the high upfront cost of LED's. You won't see LED's compared to CFL's for payback time, because it simply isn't there. LED's always are compared to 100yr old technology incandescent lamps, not a very high bar if you ask me.

Sure LED's are cool, but LED's have a ways to go in the bang/buck department. LED's will replace incandescent and CFL lamps eventually, but it's going to be awhile before the normal population will buy LED in significant quantities.